Post navigation

One of our goals for 2013 is to make our book news more readily available and accessible to you. In order to achieve this, we’ve decided to move our blog to Tumblr. We hope you will follow us to our new digital home at simonschusterca.tumblr.com. Thank you for your continued support and Happy Reading!

Like this:

UPDATE: Thanks for participating. This giveaway is now closed.Congratulations to Louise, Sandra, Rizwana, Terry, and Jolyn!

I hope it’s no secret that we at Simon & Schuster Canada are foodies.
If you follow us on Instagram, you’ve no doubt seen the bevy of desserts that roll through our kitchen.

We love to host potlucks, rummage through each other’s snack drawers, and have cheese tastings with goodies from St. Lawrence Market. When we’re not discussing books, we’re discussing where and what to eat.

But food is only delicious if you have someone else to share it with. And I’m a firm believer that the family that eats together stays together. So keeping with the holiday spirit, we’re giving away 5 cookbook sets of Rachael Ray’s My Year in Meals and Buddy Valastro’s Cooking Italian with the Cake Boss to help bring great food into your homes.

To enter, tell us what your favourite home cooked meal is in the comments section. We’ll draw five random winners on Friday, December 21, 2012. Happy holidays, and happy eating!

Like this:

We’re excited to bring you our December Book Blogger Spotlight! This is where we chat with one of our bloggers, ask them to share some of their favorite authors, the books they can’t live without, and find out how they came to book blogging.

I’ve actually been blogging since 2004 and I used to post about books I loved on my personal blog. Back in July 2007 I followed the lead of a close friend of mine and began blogging about books in a separate space. I never thought I’d be able to keep up with a second blog and I was sure that it would just end up gathering dust. Though here I am over 5 years later and I tend to blog more often on Beyond Books than on my personal blog!

What’s your favourite reading spot?

I generally curl up on the couch in my living room, wrapped up in a blanket with one of my two dogs snoring away beside me. Not the most exciting of reading spots, but it’s certainly comfortable!

Your favourite book in the last year?

I’m going to feel super guilty for mentioning books that aren’t from S&S Canada, but I adored The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesy, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, Cinder by Marissa Meyer and (and I promise this isn’t just to relieve my guilt!) Fever by Lauren DiStefano (The Chemical Garden Trilogy is one of my favourite Dystopian series ever!)

Favourite book of all time?

Polgara the Sorceress by David & Leigh Eddings. My copy is so well-read and loved it’s about to fall apart.

Favourite author?

I have quite a few but those I am quick to push on others are: Kate Forsyth (Australian author), R.J. Anderson, Sarah Addison Allen, Kim Harrison.

Favourite movie adaptation of a book?

Oh dear, I’m afraid movie adaptations just make me so angry! This might not be original, but I do love the Harry Potter films. I think letting the author have full creatve control over the movie helped big time. Mostly I am so disappointed by movie adaptations I feel like the air has been knocked out of my lungs. I try not to watch movie adaptations if I can help it.

What do you do when you’re not working on your blog?

I am an administrative assistant to a Dean in a University. I am also a wife to a wonderfully patient man and a “mum” to two Finnish Lapphund dogs. Although my first dream of becoming a rock star isn’t going as planned, I am trying to make my second dream of working and living with books a reality. I might not have the money to own my own bookstore but I am currently taking Publishing courses* to try and move out of my academic administration career into a new one where I can live, breathe and work with BOOKS.

*Though I have to admit, being a student again after 15 years is daunting and exhausting. Working full time and schooling part time means a lot less time to do things like read and blog. Woe is me!

Do you seek reader engagement on your blog? If so, how does this affect your ideas about books and authors?

I love when people leave comments on my posts, but I don’t actively seek discussion. Since I tend to run my blog as a book journal rather than a review blog and I rarely participate in promotional events like blog tours or post book trailers, I suppose the answer to this question is no, in that case. Although I still feel a little sad if a post doesn’t get comments, but nothing is better than “great book, check out my blog?” 😉

I don’t think I have changed much in 5 years, with the exception of having a larger readership and the fact that I now make an occasional video blog post. I have always blogged the same way – in the order in which I read the books (I’m very OCD that way) and I am always completely honest in my opinions. I will not promote a book I have not read and loved myself and I don’t exactly review the book so much as I blog about what happened as I read the book and why I might have read that book. I buy a ton of books every month (much to my husband’s chagrin) and the first time I received an email from a publisher asking if I’d like to review a book, I thought I had won the lottery! I have never really received many review books and now I accept even fewer (due to limited free time these days) so I guess in that aspect my blog has changed a little.

I have always held to the belief that as long as I find this fun, I will continue to do it. So far blogging has been fun and I have made sure it never feels like something I HAVE to do. Staying true to myself and blogging the way I do has managed to keep this entire process fun and cathartic to me. I don’t see myself stopping blogging any time soon. 😉

Like this:

Ronlyn Domingue is the critically and commercially acclaimed author of The Mercy of Thin Air.

She returns in March 2013 with The Mapmaker’s Warwhich is already receiving some fantastic advance praise.

Here’s a little bit about the book…

In an ancient time, in a far-away land, a young woman named Aoife is allowed a rare apprenticeship to become her kingdom’s mapmaker, tasked with charting the entire domain. Traveling beyond its borders, she finds a secretive people who live in peace, among great wealth. They claim to protect a mythic treasure, one connected to the creation of the world. When Aoife reports their existence to her kingdom, the community is targeted as a threat. Attempting to warn them of imminent danger. Aoife is exiled for treason and finds refuge among the very people who had been declared her enemy. With them, she begins a new life surrounded by kindness, equality, and cooperation. But within herself, Aoife has no peace. She cannot share the grief she feels for the home and children she left behind. She cannot bear the warrior scars of the man she comes to love. And when she gives birth to their gifted daughter, Aoife cannot avoid what the child forces her to confront about her past and its truth.

This is a mesmerizing and utterly original adventure about love and loss–and the redemptive power of the human spirit.

Take a look at some the wonderful advance praise below.

“Journey to the heart of a fairy-tale land with doomed queens, epic quests, and enemy kingdoms in The Mapmaker’s War. Ronlyn Domingue’s jewel of a book has a big canvas, memorable characters, and intimate storytelling. You will be swept away by this otherworldly tale that charts the all-too-human territory between heartbreak and hope.”-Deborah Harkness, New York Times bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night

“The Mapmakers War is an extraordinary tale of a woman’s courage in an ancient Utopian world. Domingue has taken on the herculean task of inventing a new legend, and the result is a remarkable novel at once absorbing and heart wrenching, but above all mesmerizing!”
— M.J. Rose, internationally bestselling author of Seduction

“A map can make sense out of the seen world. But it can also evoke greed. And what of a map of the heart? Legend, allegory, fantasy—this second novel by Domingue entwines genres to cast a spell upon its reader…. A curious, thought-provoking story about how the heart’s terrain bears charting, too.”
— Kirkus Reviews

“What a stunning, original book this is—restrained and sensual, cerebral and lush, always blazingly intelligent, epic and expansive, yet filled with the most precisely and lovingly observed details. This is one of the best books I’ve read in years. Reminiscent of Margaret Atwood’s best work and yet wholly its own, The Mapmaker’s War evokes one of its heroine’s fantastic, world-defining maps: giving lines to human landscapes as old as myth, seemingly for the first time. You won’t be able to put this book down, and it will take you somewhere you’ve never been, leaving you transformed.”
— Carolyn Turgeon, author of Mermaid and The Fairest of Them All

“The Mapmaker’s War evokes not mere fantasy, but the real magic I found as a child, reading by flashlight under a blanket. As then, the story takes me by the hand to exotic lands and noble people. As it proceeds, I’m reminded of myself as a teen-age girl, chafing under the restrictions of an established order. Further on, I’m lead into adulthood. The story keeps me under its spell, but it fills with adult contradictions, with experiences of betrayal and regret, with sex and self-knowledge, with the reality of evil, and all the while, yes, the same old magic. But the magic has matured, now, redeemed by love and wisdom.”
— Ava Leavell Haymon, author of Why the House Is Made of Gingerbread: Poems, Winner of the MIAL 2011 Prize for Poetry

“With an original voice, Ronlyn Domingue takes us into a land of strange truths and raw beauty. Writing against contemporary norms, she dares to forge into new territory even as she takes us into an ancient world. To the place of a red dragon and warm desire. A world full of love, and hate, and recompense. Domingue has a rare eye for the honest word and a heart willing to travel where the story leads. The Mapmaker’s War offers us the chance to reflect on both our sins and saving graces and to believe in the possibility of a future that holds kindness and understanding as key. This novel is a celebration of brave women and men, of expansive vision, and ultimately, of a humanity not easily denied.”
— River Jordan, nationally bestselling author of Praying for Strangers and The Miracle of Mercy Land

We at Simon & Schuster Canada really and truly believe that there’s no better gift than the love of reading. That’s why when we stumbled across this great gift idea on Pinterest, we had to tell everyone we could about it! The idea is to wrap up 25 children’s picture books and put them under your Christmas tree at the start of December. Before bedtime each evening, your little one gets to choose one book to unwrap, which you then read together! This continues every night up to and including the big day itself. What a cozy and heartwarmingly brilliant gift idea.

Make this a new holiday tradition! To help you start, we’ve listed 25 of our favourite children’s books down below (in no particular order). Feel free to make your own suggestions in the comments section below.

Holiday Classics:

The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore. This is a wonderful new version of the classic poem every family should own. Lavishly illustrated by renowned artist Charles Santore, the critically acclaimed illustrator of The Wizard of Oz, Snow White, and The Little Mermaid, this beautiful book is a treasure.

One Starry Night is a simple yet profound book that perfectly captures the universal nighttime vigil of parents everywhere. Author Lauren Thompson is at her lyrical best, while Jonathan Bean’s gorgeous, artisanal illustrations are the perfect match for this beautifully serene story of a truly Peaceable Kingdom.

The Hanukkah Hop by Erica Silverman, with illustrations by Steven D’Amico, is a lively and rollicking book that is sure to insprire every member of the family in celebrating the Festival of Lights!

Olivia Helps with Christmas (Ian Falconer) shows that everyone’s favourite 6-year-old pig is the #1 Kris Kringle fan, and of course she’s excited to OPEN HER PRESENTS!

Christmas Paradeis a delightful Christmas picture book filled with hilarious characters and dynamic art from the one and only Sandra Boynton! Written with the irresistible rhythm of a lively marching band and illustrated by the author with those signature Boynton characters, Christmas Parade is a superb present for young children and families everywhere. Biddy BOOM!

Bear Stays Up for Christmasis an enchanting holiday story for young readers that kids will ask for again and again. Written by Karma Wilson and illustrations by Jane Chapman.

Santa from Cincinnati by Judi Barrett (author of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs), with illustrations by Kevin Hawkes. Compiled from his baby book, family photos, and report cards, Santa from Cincinnati provides a full-spectrum view of the boy who grew to be the man who grew to be Santa.

Mortimer’s Christmas Manger is a sweet holiday story that’s cherished by families everywhere, again from the bestselling author and illustrator team of Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman.

WINTER WONDERS:

The award-winning Red Sledby Lita Judge is an almost wordless picture book in which a host of woodland creatures take a child’s sled for a nighttime joy ride. Gorgeously depicted in bold watercolor, their whimsical ride will become a wintertime favorite.

No Two Alike, written and illustrated by Keith Baker, follows a pair of birds on a snowflake-filled journey though a gorgeous winter landscape to explore how everything, everywhere is wonderfully unique.

In Making a Friend, bestselling author Alison McGhee reminds us all that “What you love will always be with you.” This tender story about the power of friendship will stay with readers long after they turn the last page.

AMAZING ANIMAL ADVENTURES:

Olivia by Ian Falconer, the award-winning book that started it all! You and your little ones are sure to fall in love with Olivia’s adorably endearing precociousness.

Olivia and the Fairy Princesses (Ian Falconer) follows our beloved Olivia on a hilarious quest for individuality, and rest assured, you won’t find THIS pig pleased to be in pink!

Don’t Be Afraid, Little Pip– from bestselling author and illustrator team of Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman comes a reassuring tale about the lovable Little Pip that will leave readers cheering… and perhaps a little less scared to try something new.

Bear Says Thanks shows us that there’s no better way for Bear to say thanks than by having a big dinner with all of his friends! Written by Karma Wilson and illustrations by Jane Chapman.

Nightsong is a beautiful coming-of-age story about a young bat setting off into the world using only his good sense! With mesmerizing artwork from NYT bestselling illustrator Loren Long and lyrical text from Ari Berk, share the lovely message that no matter how far away you go, you can always find your way home.

Mousetronaut is the story of a small mouse who wants to travel in outerspace! Written by bestselling author and retired NASA astronaut Commander Mark Kelly and with lively illustrations by award-winning artist C. F. Payne, this little mouse may inspire some big dreams!

Creepy Carrots, by Aaron Reynolds with illustrations by Peter Brown. The Twilight Zone comes to the carrot patch in this clever picture book parable about a rabbit who fears his favorite treats are out to get him.

I LoatheYou, written and illustrated by David Slonim, shows that unconditional loathing is monsterly love in this sweetly humorous picture book.

I’m Bored–we all know that there’s NOTHING boring about being a kid, but one little girl is going to have to prove it in this anything-but-boring picture book from comedian Michael Ian Black, accompanied by charismatic illustrations from newcomer Debbie Ridpath Ohi. (Also named as a New York Times Notable Children’s Book of 2012!)

Do you remember the book that you fell in love with as a child? The book with illustrations that left you wide-eyed, and words that your parents learned by heart from countless re-readings? We promise that a similar, if not more magical, experience awaits you in the books by William Joyce:

The Sandman is the second book in Joyce’s joyfully imaginative Guardians of Childhood series, and tells us how the sleepy Sandman dreamed up his sweet-dream legacy. Everything about this book is GORGEOUS.